The angels are watching over you
by Call Salvation
Summary: 'The angels are watching over you'. His mum's last words and the angel statue.


_'The angels are watching over you.'_

That's the only thing Dean remembered his mom saying because he heard it so many times. He was happy he remembered at least that, so he could also remember his mother's voice and what it sounded like. It was probably also the last thing his mother told him right before she died in the fire, but Dean chose not to dwell on that fact.

A few days after the fire they went back to the house one more time to see if there was anything left they could use. They were staying at a nearby motel. John had told Dean to stay and watch his little brother while he went back to the house. Dean however, chose not to listen and followed John soon after he left, leaving Sam with the owner of the motel, who was nice enough to look after him for a while. He just had to see the house again.

To say John was angry for leaving Sam behind when he saw Dean, hiding behind the tree in front of the old house, was an understatement. But as soon as Dean explained that he didn't just leave Sam behind, John couldn't find the courage to tell the four-year-old to go back after seeing his sad face and decided to take Dean with him. Even if he'd told Dean to go back, he wouldn't so there was no point in doing so.

The first thing Dean noticed once he was in the house was that he ground floor looked relatively good considering the fire. But apart from a few books and some other objects, the rest of the furniture was pretty much ruined due to the smoke. John decided to look for some photo albums and Dean used his dad's distraction to sneak upstairs to his room.

The first floor was an entire different story though. The walls were black, half of the ceiling was gone and there were holes in the floor. Dean carefully crossed the hallway, trying to dodge the holes to get to his room. On his way he crossed Sam's old room, or what was left of it. The room was practically nonexistent. The front wall was completely gone as well as the floor. Dean quickly turned his head away, trying to stop his forming tears from falling. Crying would do no good now so he continued his journey towards his room.

His room was no better than the hallway. The walls were also pitch-black and the floor looked like it could give out any moment. Everything was destroyed. His bed was gone, the closet and dresser were almost completely burned as well as what was inside of them. Dean thought it'd be a lost cause trying to find anything that wasn't destroyed so he turned around to leave. However before he could do so, his eyes fell on something white. It was hard to ignore since the rest of the room was black. He got across the room in no time to see what it was and when he finally could identify the white object he could believe his eyes. It was his mum's little angel statue. Dean started crying at the thought of his mother. He tried not to but he couldn't help it. The statue was unharmed as the fire seem to have stopped just in time. Drying his tears, not wanting his dad to see him like this, Dean lifted the statue and put it inside his jacket. He wasn't sure if his dad could handle seeing the statue right now so he hid it and went back downstairs to go back to the motel.

* * *

Even after ten years he still carried the statue with him. Not in his jacket but in a small and safe compartment of his bag. The bag itself he kept hidden under his bed, just to make sure. Sammy, of course, got so curious after a couple of years and Dean decided to tell him about his guardian angel statue and why it was so important to him.

"Not a word about it Sammy, not to dad and not to your buddies at school."

He made Sam promise, because a fourteen year old guy carrying an angel statue around is not cool. Even if they had to switch schools so much, Dean didn't want any trouble and he definitely did not want anyone to laugh with his mother's statue.

Sam realised the statue meant a lot to Dean. He saw Dean taking it out of the bag sometimes, like today, just to look at it when dad wasn't there, again. He would go all silent afterwards and Sam didn't dare to mention anything to anyone, afraid to make his brother even sadder.

Unfortunately this one time, John returned earlier than expected. Sam heard him coming just in time to tell Dean, who was looking at the statue. Dean figured he didn't have time to put the statue back into the bag and chose to hide it behind his back. It was the biggest mistake he could ever make.

Their dad stormed into the room, clearly very angry and walk over to Dean almost immediately. Dean Backed away out of instinct, hitting the nightstand behind him. Their dad started yelling about something like 'why Dean left Sam all alone last night', but both Sam or Dean were focussing on hiding the statue rather than listening to their father's yelling. It caused their dad to grip Dean's arm tight, asking why he wasn't listening. Dean was so surprised he let go of the statue and it fell down, shattering into a hundred pieces as it hit the ground. John didn't even look at what has fallen and just continued yelling.

Sam could see his big brother trying so hard not to cry in front of them when he realised what just happened. Dean kept looking straight forward, afraid that if he looked at the broken statue, his father would see it and be even angrier. Keeping his emotions in check was something Dean was good at, but it didn't mean he was okay.

When John ordered Dean to leave his sight and to go buy some food for his little brother, Dean did what he was told and left the room, not looking back. John calmed himself pretty fast after that. Sam, on the other hand, wasn't afraid of his dad being angry at him, was afraid that his dad saw the broken statue and be even more furious at Dean. But luckily for his brother, John mumbled something about going to the bathroom and left the room, not even taking a look at the pieces on the floor.

Sam picked up the broken pieces as soon as his dad was out of sight, put them on the table and searched the kitchen for some glue to put it back together. It was the only thing he could do for his brother now. In fact, the reason why Dean left Sam was because they were out of food. So Dean was actually going to the store for nothing right now. He made the right choice not to tell his dad though, it would've only angered him more.

Sam tried to fix the statue with the glue but soon saw is was useless. There were simply too many, too small pieces. By the time he gave up, Dean had returned, walking into his little brother trying to fix the broken angel statue. He went over to Sam and hugged him.

"Thanks Sammy."

Sam started crying at that, asking why he'd say that, it couldn't be fixed. But Dean just smiled sadly, telling he's happy Sam tried to fix it anyway.

* * *

Dean kept the pieces however, even two months after what has happened. Sam wanted to cheer his brother up by giving him something else but soon realised it could never replace their mum's statue.

Vacation was over and it was time to go back to school. They moved to another motel by now so they had to take another route to school. Dean didn't mind and neither did Sam. Taking different routes once in a while was less boring and they came across other things. They didn't go together however, Sam thought it was not good for Dean's image to be seen together. Dean tried telling Sam that it was absolutely unnecessary, but kept his mouth shut, figuring Sam tried to cheer him up this way.

On the first walk back home, Sam came across an old, weird looking shop that had beautiful dolls sitting in the window. One of the dolls was a white angel and Sam could help but to go inside. Once inside he saw an enormous amount of other dolls. The one in the window however was too expensive, but there wasn't another doll inside that looked like an angel. The old shopkeeper, who stood behind some shelves, saw him staring at the angel and asked if he could help him. Sam asked him if he had another white angel doll that was less expensive.

"I'm sorry boy, that's the only one I've got."

Sam's hopeful expression made place for a sad one and the shopkeeper couldn't help but to ask why he wanted that one. Sam thought it wouldn't be a problem telling the nice old man about the statue since he'll probably never meet Dean. The shopkeeper felt sorry for him but said he couldn't help him, that was the only white angel doll he had. But right after saying so, his face lit up and Sam could practically see a light bulb flashing above the old man's head. He told Sam to 'wait here' and left for the room back.

After a minute or so the man returned with a doll hidden in his hands saying he had another angel doll, not a white one however. He knelt down and opened his hands.

The angel doll was weird to say the least. It had dark blue wings, black hair and was wearing a trench coat. If the doll didn't had wings, Sam never thought it'd be an angel. But there was something about the doll. Its eyes were piercing blue and for a moment Sam thought the doll blinked at him. Sam shook his head and picked it up from the old man's hands and turned it around. It had a small label stitched to his back.

"Castiel?"

Sam asked the shopkeeper. The man nodded and told Sam that that was his name. He saw the doll at another shop before he opened his own a long time ago and said he thought it was one weird looking doll at first, but he felt that he should buy it anyway because it looked special. He also told Sam that it might be better to give Dean this one. Another white doll would just look like a replacement for the broken statue. This one however, was unique.

Sam agreed after a few seconds and asked how much it costs. The shopkeeper laughed and told Sam he could have it for free since the doll was just laying around in his house and because it would be better for Sam to have it. Sam couldn't thank the man enough and left the shop with a bright smile.

However, once outside, Sam began to wonder if it was such a good idea to give Dean the doll. Giving your older brother a doll is not really something you'd normally do. But Sam had to admit that the doll not only looked special, but looked like it moved. Sam knew he was only imagining it, but still...

Once inside their motel room, Sam waited for his brother's return. chose to ignore the irony about putting it behind his back to keep the doll a surprise at first. At 10 o'clock, when Dean finally returned, Sam had a hard time not showing his nerves and Dean asked him what was wrong almost immediately. Sam couldn't wait any longer and showed Dean his present.

Sam was somewhat afraid for Dean's reaction and closed his eyes. But after a few moments of silence he chose to open them again. He was surprised at what he saw. Dean's face was a mixture of happiness, sadness and gratefulness. Sam told him about what had happened at the shop and said that this was Dean's new guardian angel Castiel. Dean hugged him so tight he almost couldn't breathe, took the doll from Sammy's hand and put it on his nightstand and sat on the bed. He continued to stare at it for a while before he decided to say something.

"You know, that's one goofy looking angel."

Dean turned his head and smiled a happy smile at Sammy for the first time in ages. Sam smiled back and joined Dean, sitting on the other bed. Dean's eyes looked calm but happy.

"Thanks Sammy... Now, let's go to sleep, okay?"

Sam nodded and lay down, Dean mimicking his own movements.

" 'night Sammy... 'night Castiel. Welcome to the family..."

Dean said looking from the doll to Sammy, winking at his smiling face right before the turned off the light. The both fell asleep almost immediately. They fell asleep so fast that neither of them saw that the doll blinked and looked at Dean's sleeping form with a smile on his face.

_'Goodnight Dean.'_


End file.
